columnists

Biography

Peter McKnight is a columnist and member of the editorial board of the Vancouver Sun and an adjunct professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. A former lawyer, parole officer and hospital board chair, he holds an undergraduate degree in psychology, and advanced degrees in law, philosophy and journalism.

McKnight writes on a wide variety of subjects, including law and justice issues, science, social science, philosophy, religion and ethics. His work has appeared in most major North American newspapers and several books and academic journals.

McKnight has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2010 National Newspaper Award for Column Writing and the 2007 Commentator of the Year award from the Jack Webster Foundation. He is also a two-time winner of the Justicia Award, the most prestigious legal journalism award in Canada, a two-time winner of the Jack Webster Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism, and the first winner of the Kaiser Foundation National Award for Excellence in Media Reporting on mental health and addictions.

In addition to his journalism, McKnight continues his academic work and is a Templeton-Cambridge Fellow in Science and Religion at the University of Cambridge, and a former Knight Science Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A popular speaker, McKnight appears frequently on television and has lectured at numerous conferences and many major universities in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Recent Columns

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VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark’s once-promising relationship with the building trades has frayed, to judge from the legal challenge the construction unions filed Monday against BC Hydro’s Site C project. The B.C. Supreme Court action accuses the government-owned utility of trampling the constitutional rights of construction workers in its approach to building the $8.8-billion hydroelectric project at Site C on the Peace River.

It’s not that Shawn Matthias didn’t believe Jim Benning specifically when told by a reporter an hour before Monday’s trade deadline that the winger could relax because the Vancouver Canucks’ general manager liked his team and wasn’t trading anyone off the roster. Matthias simply wouldn’t trust any National Hockey League manager on deadline day.

In a transit referendum battle pitting the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s local representative against a Goliath of political, business and union advocates for the Yes side, Jordan Bateman is the guy with the slingshot.

The Surrey couple accused of the foiled 2013 Canada Day terror plot bickered about everything from their drug addictions to whether Islamic law permitted trimming body hair. As they stuffed pressure cookers with rusty nails and shrapnel, John Nuttall occasionally harangued his wife Amanda Korody a bit too much, causing her to snap: “You are being a nuisance!”